4.25 stars rounded up. What you’ll get when you read this:

- Battles and Tournaments
- A journey / adventure
- Cool magical creatures
- Murder mystery
- Golden retriever MMC
- Slow burn romance subplot with mild spice

This was super fun. Despite how action packed this was, I personally felt the vibes were very cozy. I had a nice time curling up before bed with this. The stakes never felt so high that I was sincerely stressed, it was just enough to be entertaining.

Johnson really excels with his descriptions of scenery. I felt like I was there, I saw everything so clearly - the taverns, the forests, the battles, the food... it felt real.

I fell in love with the characters, especially Aeveus and his two friends. They were clever, sincerely funny, and had great banter between them. There were lovely found family vibes.

At times when female characters are written by male authors they can be borderline (if not overtly) offensive. That is NOT the case here. Johnson did a great job at making Karessa just another person without centering her sexuality or descriptions of her body. But my one critique is that I didn't find myself connecting with her as much as Aeveus. I just didn't feel like Johnson fully captured the heart and mind of a woman. When reading her POV it sometimes felt as though I was looking at her through Aeveus' eyes.

However, The book is mostly in Aeveus' POV, which I preferred. I think his POV was done exceptionally well. I related to him so much, and I found myself really feeling for him and routing for him to succeed. I enjoyed reading romance from a male POV.

I will 100% be picking up book 2 - because that ending?!? Totally took me off guard, I didn't expect it. I'm so excited to see where this goes!!